The government plans to increase annual income from $764 million to $1.85 billion annually come to 2021 in horticulture including creating jobs and wealth for youth and women. Deputy Minister for Agriculture Hussein Bashe said this during the indoor horticulture stakeholder’s summit held at Nashera hotel in Dodoma. Hon. Bashe also hinted on the plan of establishing the Horticulture Development Agency (HDA) that will be the first in the country resulting in a big revolution in the industry. Some of the initiatives under the flagship plan include removal of export hurdles, review of regulatory barriers, and address the logistics and infrastructural snags, easy importation of horticultural high technologies to enhance Agri-mechanization On the other hand TAHA’s CEO Jacqueline Mkindi asked relief to horticultural growers who face about 47 different taxes, fees and levies as the industry is regulated by 20 regulatory bodies thus imposing a heavy cost on businesses in terms of time and money. Lastly, she requested the government to identify, demarcate and protect land for horticulture, overall improvement of business enabling environment including review of Plant Protection Act, fast-tracking registration of pesticides, dedicated investment promotion campaigns to increase the number of off-takers (local and foreign).
